Benavides man honors wife, veterans by cleaning cemetery
BENAVIDES — Once littered with trash, overrun by weeds and dotted with toppled headstones, the historic cemetery in the Duval County city of Benavides is undergoing a makeover thanks to former schoolteacher and principal Humberto De Los Santos, who has emerged as the caretaker of his hometown cemetery.
De Los Santos said he began work at the cemetery — which contains hundreds of graves with the names of former residents dating to 1902 — soon after his wife, Leonor, passed after a long illness two years ago.
"I noticed the overgrown weeds and didn't like that, so I decided to begin work to clean it up," he said.
To accomplish the task, De Los Santos established a grid system measuring 50 by 50 feet, slowly working his way through the two-block area encompassing the cemetery.
"Unfortunately, I've been told there's no more room for any new plots," De Los Santos said. "The city has made that clear."
He said a second motivation was to honor Benavides' veterans buried at the cemetery who lost their lives serving their country.
"We have 15 veterans, all killed in action, buried here," De Los Santos said, citing the nearby graves of Julian Garza, Vicente D. Lira, Rubin Chapa and Manuel D. Ruiz, all buried in a small section of the cemetery once hidden by weeds and covered with moss.
Since De Los Santos was joined two months ago by former Benavides ISD teacher Simon Saenz Jr. and Duval County Commissioner David Garza's work crew, the cemetery has taken a new life, with silk flower petals now fluttering in the breeze.
On parts of its borders, the cemetery's graves include handmade crosses surrounded with grass in some areas and unadorned earth in others.
Among the graveyards scattered throughout the cemetery are the graves of the town's early settlers, who journeyed from faraway places to carve a future in the South Texas brush, and the county's entrepreneurs, moms and dads, and teachers. Also buried there are Dionicio Maldonado, Vicente Aguilar and Crecencio Olivira Jr., three men allegedly murdered by Texas Rangers near Bruni in the early 20th century.
"I started here," De Los Santos said, pointing to the Parr family plot on the cemetery's far east corner. "It's surprising how many people are buried there," he said of the burial plot.
The town was named after Plácido Benavides (1837-1919), who served in the Confederate Army and built his Rancho Palo Alto into one of the largest ranches in Duval County following the war. In 1880, he agreed to let the Texas Mexican Railroad locate a railroad station on his property and in 1881 donated 80 acres to establish the community that grew up around the Texas Mexican Railway.
Prior to the cemetery being designated, De Los Santos said people in the small community buried their loved ones at the family ranch, a custom still employed by area residents today.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Benavides man honors wife, veterans by cleaning cemetery
